the path of white clouds and blue mountains

[Taigu]

"The blue mountains are of themselves blue mountains.
The white clouds are of themselves white clouds."

Such is suchness. Effortless. No trying, no holding back, no fixing. I suppose we could call it absolute unconditionnal acceptance of what comes and goes within and without and in between. You see it is hard to believe and even harder to put into practice, things, peoplle, dogs, roads, health and sickness,jobs and joblessness, shelves and stuff ...are perfect as they are, and of course we have some mending to do here and there, like on an old robe, perfect and imperfect. I once asked a Japanese friend of mine to write this on a wooden kotsu, shippei or nyoi-bo, a short stick that teachers sometimes hold like a short toilet brush during ceremonies and the likes. But, better than holding this priest staff, one of my daily practice is to see it written everywhere, to exercise the shobogenzo, gen, to spot this path on every little corner of this beautiful world. And of course, I daily fail. And of course, failing is also


"The blue mountains are of themselves blue mountains.
The white clouds are of themselves white clouds."


gassho


Taigu

[Tobiishi]

Re: the path of white clouds and blue mountains

tobiishi is of himself blue mountains.
blue mountains are of themselves white clouds.
white clouds of themselves are tobiishi.

the old problem of life and death.
the same old problem of nothing
becoming something
temporarily,
then nothing again.

the old homeless bum is the ego.

[Brock]

Re: the path of white clouds and blue mountains

You see it is hard to believe and even harder to put into practice, things, peoplle, dogs, roads, health and sickness,jobs and joblessness, shelves and stuff ...are perfect as they are, and of course we have some mending to do here and there, like on an old robe, perfect and imperfect

Taigu Sensei,

For the last few days, I had this feeling of irritability and dissatisfaction. Everything I did was influenced by this.

At times, I started to grapple with it, but I also realized that it would pass. And merely running to the cushion and sitting is not an antidote for feeling poorly.

I don't know what it was or why it was there, but indeed it passed.

[Taigu]

Re: the path of white clouds and blue mountains

Very nice, Tobiishi-cloud-mountains-bum.
I like to see the old homeless bum as our reality. The fixing, bracing, getting, achieving, grasping, fighting, fleeing...as a set of habits that one might call ego. But that is just me, really.


gassho


Taigu

[Taigu]

Re: the path of white clouds and blue mountains

Hi Brock,

We all go through these patches of dull days and irritation. I am not sure we need to understand the whole thing. In fact, I am pretty sure that all we have to do is to accept it, to stop being upset about being upset and practice it is OK not to be OK. I suppose it gets worse because of our lack of acceptance. There is great stuff here and posts about anger. My way with anger, just before it gets to late and I identify with it, is to just sit and breathe with it, talk to it as you would speak to an old friend or a child, which it is in many ways. I thank the anger but decline the invitation and come back to what I am doing, or allow the doing to bring me back.

gassho

Taigu

[Brock]

Re: the path of white clouds and blue mountains

Thank you for the words. I'll get there some day!

[Taigu]

Re: the path of white clouds and blue mountains

Brock, not some day, some day doesn t exist, start today. As to getting somewhere, this is endless.

gassho


Taigu

[Brock]

Re: the path of white clouds and blue mountains

Imprecise language on my part can connote imprecise thinking on my part. Thank you for the correction and thank you for the words and advice.